As a USPTA certified and highly trained tennis coach, I have been involved with developing players, and also recruiting players that have been developed (college level). I’ve experienced the extreme environment of face to face competition. Tennis coaches either like that extreme competition, or they do not. Or the coaches may like it at one point in time and lose interest in it at another point.

Tennis competition, by itself, can be “dog eat dog”. I’ve known and worked with players of incredible talent and “pedigree” who were raised to be professional players. The players I am referring to had been trained by the best coaches in the world. They lived tennis. They tennis trained like maniacs. They attended tennis “academies”. They learned and worked with single focus to reach the professional goal. I’d like to go over a couple of their stories.

Meet Peter Mallett. Australian born and raised. Used to beat Pat Cash in Australian junior tennis like a “drum”. Pat Cash went on to win the Wimbledon men’s professional singles title, which is one of the most prestigious tournaments in history. Peter played on the Junior Davis Cup Tennis Team of Australia. He was one of the best of the entire country of Australia. John Fitzgerald was also playing Australian Junior Tennis and training along side Peter Mallett.

Peter was playing some early pro tennis tournaments at a very young age, he had told me. Peter learned the serve and volley style and had for his whole career one of the biggest serves I’ve seen. Even after he broke all the tennis records at Oklahoma State, he standardly tore apart his competition in men’s open tennis for the longest time, often playing collegiate stars in tournaments and tearing them up. He also won national titles in varying age divisions in singles and doubles and on varying surfaces (I believe 6 Gold Balls which are championship trophies for number 1). To me, he was one of the best tennis players that I’ve heard or seen that did not want to play the pro circuit. He was always a huge player with a huge game.

Peter taught tennis with me in Colorado where I was for numerous years. I had some play ending injuries, but was an NAIA College player who played number one on my team 3 of 4 years. I decided to go be a teaching pro, because that was how I put myself through college, by teaching as the head pro at a small local country club for 5 summers. My playing career ended with my injuries, but I could teach pretty well. But, Peter had other options to play, and ended up handing me a resume’ of his tennis background at the Colorado club I worked at.

Peter was a typical Aussie, with competitive and gregarious nature, so people liked his skill and his personality. Pete taught some great players. And of course, as all of us, taught some players that were ok but pretty average. Either way, we all decide as professionals, whether we want to teach or not. Peter could have taught at the highest academies, and he could have played pro tennis, I have zero doubt. He chose to live in Colorado and teach there, which included ladies and men and juniors of all ages and levels. He eventually moved to Utah to do the same.

Peter shifted to becoming a stock broker, and did that with the zeal of a competitor. A natural salesman with an Aussie accent and personality made it work well. He lives in Utah with his wife and has numerous children and grandchildren. He still teaches the game.

The other person I’ve been closely associated with in the past is Thomas Calhoun. Thomas played collegiate tennis for me for 3 years at Colorado State University which is NCAA div 2 and in a small town named Pueblo. Thomas had been developed as a boarding full timer at Nick Bolletieri’s Tennis Academy in Bradenton, Florida. Bolletieri had developed the worlds top players for many years and has many awards to it’s name and founder, Nick Bolletieri. Thomas’ parents lived through the “negro leagues” as his father would say. Whites had their own leagues back then. Thomas’ mother played doubles at one time with Althea Gibson, one of the all time great tennis players. His father met his mother when she was down on the court with heat exhaustion and he was a doctor who helped her. They brought Thomas to Bolletieri’s from Washington D.C. to Florida at age 12. Thomas was visited often. He told me that his mother would see Andre Agassi spray balls over the fence into the swimming pool. She would tell him to keep hitting and don’t stop, that it will get better!

Thomas worked extremely hard every single day often 5 or more hours. He learned everything a future pro would need to learn, as Nick hired the best teaching pros and directors. Thomas and I often discussed all the theories and styles of tennis when together on road trips. The Academy was like a military school for players. Only the strong survived. With more than 40 courts, players would have to work their way up in a pecking order. Thomas was brilliantly fast and athletic, saying he never lost sprints to Andre and the gang. His father told me once that they wondered why he didn’t get tall like him (father who was over 6 feet tall), and thought it may have been lifting weights at too young of an age where it stifled his growth plates. Even Sundays “day off” at the beach always started with a 3 mile run up and down the beach.

Thomas talked about the academy players being bused to tournaments and how they dominated tournaments. “Thomas, I’ll drop you off and be back in 45 minutes to pick you up”.

Thomas made quick work of other good but “soft” players. He also got to a point where at age 16 he was ranked in the top 15 amateur men’s players in the USA. Amazing player. Highly conditioned. Highly trained. Awesome gamer. Pro style bio-mechanics, strategies and pro level conditioning. Trained by the best to be the best- in the world. Thomas even lived with Andre Agassi who went on to be one of the best in the world and one of the best American tennis players. He trained on the top court with Andre and players that would crack the top ten in the world.

He recounted many memories to me as we would take the van to go play other universities. Amazing stories and insights, and too numerous to mention here. Thomas became a two-time All-American in NCAA 2 tennis which means he was top twenty players out of 300 plus universities that sponsor NCAA division 2 tennis. He was voted as the “Athlete of the Century” for the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (among many other awards). This is in comparison to all athletes (not just tennis players!) in that conference since its inception. I was very fortunate to get to coach Thomas, as he used up his NCAA Division 1 eligibility by going to play number one for Maryland after attempting the pro circuit afterwards. The NCAA div 1 clock started and kept running. Division 2 eligibility clock is by different rules and did not continue after that year at Maryland.

He was held back from the Bolletieri entourage for pro players because of his grades at the boarding school did not meet his families requirements which were set when he started. Andre basically gave up his school needs and went for the pro level, telling Thomas in the classroom that basically he didn’t like school and he was going to go for it on the circuit. This happened while Thomas split in a different direction. This, in retrospect, was the proverbial “fork in the road”.

Thomas broke all tennis records at Colorado State University- Pueblo. He was the only NCAA two-time all American in tennis and in any CSU-Pueblo sport. He won everything in sight. Our team benefitted greatly and everyone became extremely competitive, including me.

Battles in practices. Battles in matches. Extreme training and competition. And, as this was going on, I was coaching both teams, teaching a collegiate course, directing intramural, and fund-raising to keep the program moving in the higher levels. Everyone involved was pushed.

Over the many years I lost touch with many players, and Thomas Calhoun lost touch with me also. His father says they have no idea where he is now as he had some very difficult times, maybe with mental illness. The university and the conference have given him awards and wanted him to accept them, but he could not be located. Neither Thomas or I accepted the awards, but they were still given. This was another player that had all the abilities and made it to the top court at Bolletieri’s and was to be a top pro on the pro ATP circuit. He trained with the best, and was the best. World class best. He had a couple unlucky breaks and couldn’t make it on the circuit. I often think about him and how he made it fun to coach. Wherever you are Thomas - thanks for the time and effort, it was great. I pray you are okay wherever you are!

The pro circuit is tough. It’s a gigantic investment to get a player up to those levels. I’ve known players that have done it. I’ve seen it up close. It is truly very difficult to get there, and if you are so fortunate to have the ability and skills, there is very little compassion and it truly is “dog eat dog” as Pete would say. I know Peter Mallett and Thomas Calhoun really were good enough to make it to the top, but had different stories that stopped that from happening. But there are many stories that are similar out there - these are two that I know personally and upfront. Great families and great players I’ve been fortunate to have worked with. Peter is doing great. Thomas, I pray for to this day.

For me, my story was being involved in tennis because it was a fun game. It should be. I’m very happy that I followed my love for playing and coaching a game. But, honestly, after injuries, I had to play less and coach more. I’ve developed state champions, collegiate champions, high school number 1’s, women’s and men’s recreational league champions, and recreational junior players. It’s been a career, but it’s still a game. If I can say it that way. It is still a game, no matter how hard we try to make it more than that. But if you love it or leave it, tennis will more than likely have it’s ups and downs, sometimes in dramatic fashion. And it’s not unlike life for many players, coaches and parents. And it is still a game.

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